Worth Fighting For
by sophichka
Summary: TeddyLily Oneshot. For the 04/10/10 prompt of the day - Nothing worth fighting for is ever easy.


**Written for the Monday 04/10/10 prompt of the day – Nothing worth fighting for is ever easy.**

_But I won't leave you alone,  
"Cause nothing in this world worth fighting for is easy,  
I thought you should know..._

_Worth Fighting For – Nine Days_

I ran through Muggle London, my hair streaming out behind me, tears pouring their way down my face as I dodged left and right, not knowing where I was going, but knowing I had to get away – away from him, away from them, away from _life._

I thought that Cinderella was meant to always get her happy ever after, so why had my life turned out like this? Unless of course, I wasn't Cinderella, but one of the ugly sisters, and destined to live my life without the Prince.

I arrived, sobbing, on the front step of the one place I knew I would always be heard. I banged on the door, sobs still convulsing my body, as I let the bronze lion doorknocker fall back against the door with a thud.

The door opened, the woman behind it looking flustered, evidently not approving of the banging that I had inflicted on the door. Then she caught sight of my red, swollen face.

"Oh, Lily," Hermione said, wrapping my arms around my.

-X-X-X-

Three months later and you would have hardly recognised me. In my fifth year, I was the shy, introverted Slytherin, who many people had thought was placed in my house as a fluke – I certainly wasn't your typical Slytherin material. Over the summer though, I had worked a transformation on myself – gone was the perfect uniform, replaced instead by skirts so short that they were only just decent, shirts unbuttoned just a bit too far to make tying a tie viable, so instead my tie held my red curls off my face. My shoes could be heard clacking down the corridor from meters away, and every single child in the younger years was terrified of me. I was the new Pansy Parkinson – and I loved every minute of it.

I was going to forget all about _him _and his stupid lies. I was going to put all of him fucking crap behind me and move on with my life. Unrequited love is only fun for so long, and I was most certainly through. I hoped that him and _her _were happy together. They deserved each other – the half werewolf and the part veela.

I squelched out to Care of Magical Creatures, hoping that my brand new shoes weren't completely dead. By the time I had reached the enclosure, the lesson had been going for at least five minutes. I moved over to stand next to Ivy Malfoy, the younger Malfoy child, and started helping her with plaiting out our unicorn's tail.

I had never cared much for CoMC, nor for Hagrid, although my parents adored him. I found him an over-enthusiastic oaf, who would be much better suited to grounds keeping than teaching. The only one of his lessons I had ever enjoyed was the lesson we met the Thestrals. I was the only member of the class able to see them, and that gave me a certain power over the rest of the class – I was the girl who had seen someone _die._

It's really not all that bigger deal though. It's eerie, it's magical and it's _beautiful_. That's the only way to describe the flash of green light, the slow motion falling, and the stillness that death brings. It's the aftermath that I wish I could erase from my memory – the screams, the panic, the grief.

-X-X-X-X-

I stayed at school that Christmas. I couldn't go home and face _him,_ and Dad would almost certainly invite him to stay on Christmas day at least, if not for longer.

Christmas day was uneventful. I woke to find presents from my family and friends surrounding my bed, and a house elf standing next to me offering me a tray with breakfast on it. I ripped into my presents, pleased on the whole with the gifts of sweets, cosmetics and, of course, the Weasley jumper from Grandma Molly, which I gifted to the house elf, free thanks to Aunt Hermione's reforms, standing next to me.

I was sitting in the common room, after the most awkward Christmas lunch of my life – Professor McGonagall, Professor Longbottom and I being the only ones having elected to stay for the Christmas Holidays. Making stilted conversation about the weather for an hour can really tire a girl out! I heard the common room door creak open, although I was the only Slytherin left at school.

"Lily," a man's voice said "I think we need to talk."

"Fuck off Teddy, I have nothing to say to you," the tears were threatening to fall, and I had to fight to keep my voice steady as I slowly turned to see Teddy standing by the open doorway "And how did you, a Gryffindor, get into the Slytherin common room?"

"Listen, Lily, we had something special, you and I, we worked, we fit, and now you're letting it all slip through our fingers because you saw something that you don't understand, and won't let me explain!"

"How hard is it to misinterpret you standing with your arms around that _thing_?" I screamed at him, my temper flaring "You're right – we had something amazing, but you're the one who let it slip through your fingers when you decided to make out with _my cousin!_"

I ran out of the common room, tears streaming down my face, somehow finding my way out into the gardens. The last two times I had seen Teddy I had ended up running out crying, which I think speaks volumes about the direction in which our relationship was headed.

I heard footsteps behind me – he had followed me out, as I knew he would. I braced myself for round two of our argument, but instead he took me by the hand and tugged me down into his lap.

"Come on, Lils," he whispered "you've got to fight; you've got to stay strong. This can work, I know it can."

"How can it?" I sobbed back, burying my head against his chest "I'm here during term time and you're in London. Every time we see each other we end up fighting, and I end up crying, and it's just so _difficult _Teddy."

"Hey, hey," he said, turning my head around so that I was looking him in the eyes "_nothing _worth fighting for is ever easy."

"But are we worth fighting for?" I asked "It seems as though we're just sinkining."

"Everything is worth fighting for, Lils."

-X-X-X-X-

And three years later, when I walked down the aisle towards him, I was accompanied by the very same words he had spoken to me all those years ago playing over the speaker system, because life's never easy. And that's the beauty of life.


End file.
